NEHEMIAH 7 — GUARDING THE CITY AND THE REGISTER OF THE FIRST RETURNEES

Chapter 7 reproduces, with differences, the list of the first returnees found in Ezra 2. Nehemiah explains that he found this list in the course of a registration, when the wall was complete and he needed to repopulate the city. The differences between the two lists, mainly in some numbers and names, are small and have several possible explanations: different copies of the same list, scribal errors in transmitting numerals, or different dates of compilation. The totals agree at 42,360. The chapter has two functions. First, it provides an official record of the families who belonged to the community, which was needed to establish who had rights to land and office, and who should live in the city. Second, it connects Nehemiah's work to the earlier return, showing continuity. The chapter ends with the gifts for the work and the settlement in the towns, preparing for the great assembly in the seventh month, which begins in chapter 8.

The close parallel between Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 is a feature that has been discussed by scholars. The differences are of the kind found in other ancient texts copied independently, especially in numerals. The Dead Sea Scrolls show that ancient scribes used various systems for writing numbers, which made errors likely. The structure of the list, with leaders, laymen by family and by town, priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, and Solomon's servants, matches administrative documents from the ancient Near East. The names fit the Persian period, and many occur in other contemporary documents, such as the Elephantine papyri. The gold daric was introduced by Darius I, which confirms that the register's gift lists date from the Persian period. The mention of a governor who defers the decision about priests to a future use of the Urim and Thummim is consistent with the community's loss of the priestly oracle after the exile.